ABSTRACT
This article discusses transitions in labour relations in a number of selected countries in the former Eastern Europe; Bulgaria, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Hungary and Poland. Under previous political regimes, the common features of state ownership of enterprises, party political control and central planning shaped the labour relations models. With the transition to market economies and political pluralism, there are a number of contingent changes in labour relations which are occurring at the national and enterprise levels. On the basis of comparisons between the selected countries we discuss some of these changes. We begin with a consideration of the changing role of trade unionism, both in terms of how it has been an agent of economic and political change and how it has, in turn, responded to these. This leads us to consider the broader economic and political context of trade unionism and the extent to which various forms of tripartism are emerging in each of the countries. The discussion then focuses upon developments at the level of the enterprise and reviews trends in collective bargaining and worker participation. This is then followed by some observations of how labour relations at the enterprise level is conditioned by managerial strategies associated with privatisation and with the restructuring of enterprises and their mechanisms of organisational control. The paper concludes by identifying some common trends in each of the five countries. It also emphasises sources of diversity and argues that in the transition to various forms of market economy labour relations models in each of the countries will continue to be characterised by contrasting features linked to the prevailing political conditions and the fortunes of tripartism.
